Let us notice: It is not that every use of any of these art forms is automatically right, but that they are not wrong per se. Ezekiel was asked to enact this drama each day for over a year. For these long months he portrayed a work of drama before the backdrop in order that Israel would understand that God was going to bring down judgment.

The second art form, the dance, is mentioned in Psalm 149:3, in which Israel is encouraged to praise God: “Let them praise his name in the dance; let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.” Some may reply, “Well, in the margin of my Bible it says that maybe it isn’t the dance, but rather the ‘pipe,’ and I like that better.” But that is not the best translation. Psalm 150:4, 5 says, “Praise him with the timbrel and dance; praise him with stringed instruments and pipe. Praise him upon the loud cymbals; praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.”

Two historical portions of the Bible show that God was pleased with people dancing. Exodus 15:20 says that Miriam as prophetess went out “with timbrels and with dances.” And in 2 Samuel 6:14-16 we are told, “And David danced before Jehovah with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.” Imagine David bringing the ark of God into his city — a very high moment indeed among the Jews. The ark which had been outside the city is now being brought in, and David is filled with joy as he worships God. It is interesting, by the way, that David was clothed with an ephod. This means that he was not dancing naked as was common among the heathen. Nonetheless, when David’s wife saw it she didn’t like it (6:16). Yet God liked it, and David’s wife was reproved for reproving David.

Art and Heaven
Revelation 15:2, 3 reads, “And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire, and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and from the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of the ages.” Art does not stop at the gate of Heaven. Art forms are carried right into Heaven. Is there any Platonic separation here? Not a bit.

In the art museum at Neuchatel are three great murals by Paul Robert which for over eighty years have borne testimony to all the people of Neuchatel that Christ is coming again. One of the murals testifies to the fact that Christ has a relationship to agriculture, another to the fact that Christ has a relationship to industry. But the third one is the greatest. It depicts the relationship between Christ, the intellectual life, and the arts. Paul Robert, a Swiss artist who was a real man of God, understood this relationship very well. In the background of this mural he pictured Neuchatel, the lake on which it is situated, and even the art museum which contains the mural. In the foreground near the bottom is a great dragon wounded to the death. Underneath the dragon is the vile and the ugly, the pornographic and the rebellious. Near the top Jesus is seen coming in the sky with His endless hosts. On the left side is a beautiful stairway, and on the stairway are young and beautiful men and women carrying the symbols of the various forms of art — architecture, music and so forth. And as they are carrying them up and away from the dragon to present them to Christ, Christ is coming down to accept them. Paul Robert understood Scripture a lot better than many of us. He saw that at the second coming the Lordship of Christ will include everything.

But he also knew that if these things are to be carried up to the praise of God and the Lordship of Christ at the second coming, then we should be offering them to God now. In the same picture he portrayed the city of Neuchatel, the beautiful lake, and the art museum itself — , the art museum of Neuchatel and its works of art should be to the praise of Christ now. The reality of the future has meaning for the present!

Do we understand the freedom we have under the Lordship of Christ and the norms of Scripture? Is the creative part of our life committed to Christ? Christ is the Lord of our whole life, and the Christian life should produce not only truth — flaming truth — but also beauty.

Some Perspectives on Art
All of us are engaged daily with works of art, even if we are neither professional nor amateur artists. We read books, we listen to music, we look at posters, we admire flower arrangements. Art, as I am using the word, does not include just “high art” — that is, painting, sculpture, poetry, classical music — but also the more popular expressions — the novel, the theater, the cinema and popular music. In fact, there is a very real sense in which the Christian life itself should be our greatest work of art. Even for the great artist, the most crucial work of art is his life.

In what follows, I wish to develop a Christian perspective on art in general. How should we as creators and enjoyers of beauty comprehend and evaluate it? There are, I believe, at least eleven distinct perspectives from which a Christian can consider and evaluate works of art. These perspectives do not exhaust the various aspects of art. The field of aesthetics is too rich for that. But they do cover a significant portion of what should be a Christian’s understanding in this area.

The Art Work as an Art Work
1. The first is the most important: a work of art has a value in itself. For some this principle may seem too obvious to mention, but for many Christians it is unthinkable. And yet if we miss this point, we miss the very essence of art. Art is not something we merely analyze or value for its intellectual content. It is something to be enjoyed. The Bible says that the art work in the tabernacle and the temple was for beauty.

How should an artist begin to do his work as an artist? I would insist that he begin his work as an artist by setting out to make a work of art. What that would mean is different in sculpture and poetry, for example, but in all cases the artist should be setting out to make a work of art.

As a Christian we know why a work of art has value. Why? First, because a work of art is a work of creativity, and creativity has value because God is the Creator. The first sentence in the Bible is the declaration that the Creator created: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” So too the first words of the prologue to the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... . All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made” (John 1:1, 3). Therefore, the first reason that creativity has value is that God is the Creator.

Second, an art work has value as a creation because man is made in the image of God, and therefore man not only can love and think and feel emotion, but also has the capacity to create. Being in the image of the Creator, we are called upon to have creativity. In fact, it is part of the image of God to be creative, or to have creativity. We never find an animal, non-man, making a work of art. On the other hand, we never find men anywhere in the world or in any culture in the world who do not produce art. Creativity is a part of the distinction between man and non-man. All people are to some degree creative. Creativity is intrinsic to our “mannishness.”

But we must be careful not to reverse this. Not everything that man makes is good intellectually or morally. So, while creativity is a good thing in itself, it does not mean that everything that comes out of man’s creativity is good. For while man was made in the image of God, he is fallen. Furthermore, since men have various gifts and talents, everyone cannot create everything equally well. However, the main point is that creativity as creativity is a good thing as such.

When I was younger, I thought it was wrong to use the word create in reference to works of art. I thought it ought to be used solely in relation to what God can do. Later, I saw that I was desperately wrong; I am now convinced that it is important to understand that both God and man create. Both make something. The distinction is this: God, because He is infinite, can create out of nothing by His spoken word. We, because we are finite, must create from something else that has already been created. Yet the word create is appropriate, for it suggests that what man does with what is already there is to make something new. Something that was not there before, something that began as an unmannish part of reality, is transformed by the mannishness of man and now reflects that mannishness.